September 25, 2010

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s donation will help troubled Newark schools, which have been taken over by the state.

(CNN) — One of America’s richest and youngest is giving back.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive of social-networking powerhouse Facebook, is planning on donating $100 million toward improving public schools in the troubled district of Newark, New Jersey.

The gift would be the largest known charitable donation by Zuckerberg, who Forbes magazine says is the 35th richest person in the United States with an estimated net worth of nearly $7 billion.

At 26, he and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz are the youngest billionaires on the list.

The news comes just over a week before "The Social Network," a brutal (and, admittedly, fictionalized) biopic chronicling the early days of Facebook, is set to be released. By all accounts, the film doesn’t cast Zuckerberg in a positive light, leading some critics to accuse him of making the donation as an image-booster.

Unbelievable! A Palo Alto resident giving money to undeserving non-Palo Alto kids! Doesn’t he realize all the unfunded needs in Palo Alto’s schools? Why, there are Palo Alto high school students whose parents can’t afford to send them to college! Why isn’t he helping them?

Besides, look at how much bang for the buck a donation to Palo Alto schools creates. Take a look at what Palo Alto Partners in Education plans to do with this years’ fundraising.

Can you imagine what Palo Alto could do with ten million to spend on science enrichment? They could build a scale working model of SLAC at every single one of the elementary schools! For Technology Mentors, this kind of cash they could bring in Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison for three days to each of the middle schools! And can you imagine the College Counseling for ten million dollars? That would pay for a charter jet to bring in the Presidents of all eight Ivy League schools. They could meet with every single high school student so every one of them would know which school was the best fit (and appropriate fees sent to the schools’ Development Departments for a win-win). The remainder of the funds could pick up the Limo fees and restaurant tabs for John Hennessy.

PIE raised $2.9 million for Palo Alto schools for the 2010 school year. Zuckerberg could have totally eclipsed last year’s performance by sending that donation where it belonged… where he lives. Instead, he blew the whole wad on a failing school district in a completely different state! I mean, seriously, if you’re going to donate to New Jersey schools, why not Tenafly?

Do you see why Zuckerberg went wrong? He’s 26 and he doesn’t have any children of his own. Hopefully his priorities will change once he enrolls a couple of Facebook heirs into their neighborhood school. But first, he’s going to have to take an even more important step and buy a house.

Zuckerberg has found all his homes on Craigslist. His first place was a sparse one-bedroom apartment that a friend described as something like a “crack den.” The next apartment was a two-bedroom, followed by his current place, a two-story, four-bedroom house that he told me is “too big.” He rents. (“He’s the poorest rich person I’ve ever seen in my life,” Tyler Winklevoss said.)

He rents. That means he’s a transient guest. He isn’t abiding with the Real Bay Area spirit and sinking a pile of money into a house! More importantly, he had a golden opportunity to show his commitment to the community. Instead, by donating to the wrong school district, he’s appeared on Oprah. But there is one ray of sunshine:

According to an official familiar with the agreement, Zuckerberg’s donation will be the first installment from a foundation financed by Zuckerberg and focused on bettering education.

The first installment. See, it isn’t too late to send the money where it’s most needed.

13 Responses to “CEO Donates to Wrong School District”

Phillips Exeter and Harvard educated little twit! Those schools need money too. How is there going to be a ruling class without an educational system that takes the cream of the crop and educates them in the lap of luxury? The average SAT score for Exeter is over 2050. PA is under 1900. I say we put the money where it’s going to do the most good – getting those Exeter scores closer to 2400.

My blood IS boiling! Exeter is barely skrimping along. Do you have any idea how much it costs to maintain a 900 gal. aquarium and a breaching whale skeleton? Palo Alto wouldn’t have any idea what to do with the money. Exeter on the other hand knows what’s important.

Loved the article btw. I only read AS in airports. I couldn’t let it come to the house and have the mailman see. I’m studying it to see if I need to fine tune my comprehension of that particular social group. I find them fascinating.

It was tough going through that article, with all the slams on anything to the right of Newt Gingrich. But the idea of the “incumbent class” has also been floated with similar language.

maryjane, you’re missing an opportunity. Just have the mag sent to one of your live-out help and have them bring it to the estate when they show up to work. Plus *their* mailman will think s/he is shockingly educated, so feel free take the cost of the subscription out of their pay.

Live OUT help? That must be why some people are converting their basements to media rooms. What a concept.

I think there are two good reasons why PA SAT scores are lower than Exeter or St. Paul’s (ave – 2075!). There’s nothing like waking up to a brisk New Hampshire winter to go to Saturday classes. It focuses the mind like nothing else.

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